Upanishads · Rāma-tāpanī Uttara 5.23
॥
Devanāgarī
कृच्छ्रैस्तप्तपराकाद्यैः नानाचान्द्रायणैरपि । पापं च नापनोद्यं यत् तदप्याशु विनाशयेत्
Transliteration (IAST)
kṛcchraistaptaparākādyaiḥ nānācāndrāyaṇairapi | pāpaṃ ca nāpanodyaṃ yat tadapyāśu vināśayet
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
कृच्छ्रैः तप्तपराकाद्यैःkṛcchraiḥ taptaparākādyaiḥby penances — the taptakṛcchra, the parāka and the rest; by austerities like tapta-kṛcchra and parāka
नानाचान्द्रायणैः अपिnānācāndrāyaṇaiḥ apiand by various cāndrāyaṇas too; and by the several moon-fasts
पापम् च न अपनोद्यम् यत्pāpam ca na apanodyam yatthe sin that is not driven off; the taint that is not removed
तत् अपि आशु विनाशयेत्tat api āśu vināśayetthat too it will swiftly destroy; this too it will soon annihilate
Translation
“The sin that is not driven off by the penances — the taptakṛcchra, the parāka and the rest — nor by the various cāndrāyaṇas, that too it will swiftly destroy.”
Version
76f5efb9fdc0 · published Jul 29, 2026, 5:15:19 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The names of the fasts are given, and they are not abstract: these are penances spelled out in detail in the śāstras.
Kṛcchra is the general name of such austerities. Tapta-kṛcchra — “the burning one”: for twelve days in a row one drinks only hot water, then hot milk, then clarified butter, then breathes hot air. Parāka — twelve days of complete fasting.
Cāndrāyaṇa — “the moon-fast”: from the full moon one lessens the food by a mouthful a day down to full abstention at the new moon, then adds back.
These are no symbolic rites: not everyone endured them.
And it is said that there are sins which even they do not take.
Note where this whole row of verses tends — the twenty-first, the twenty-second, the twenty-third. Named in turn are three chief remedies of the old law: pilgrimage, the holy place, the penitential fast.
And each time the same: there it is not driven off; here it is destroyed swiftly.
The next verse will name the fourth and last remedy — the giving away of wealth.